I know I should probably be talking about the things that are happening in our SA & NT churches. But my attention was diverted from our local situations by a disturbing article I read the other day.
I know I should probably be talking about the things that are happening in our SA & NT churches. But my attention was diverted from our local situations by a disturbing article I read the other day.
It was about the crisis unfolding in Gaza. Written by John Lyons, the ABC Global Affairs Editor currently based in Jerusalem, he sought to be impartial, both condemning what Hamas did while also reporting on Israel’s conduct.
In this article, he simply states that Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. The stark facts bring home to us the tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes.
- A Palestinian child is killed every 15 minutes. Thousands more are missing under rubble
- One of every 10 children killed in Gaza did not make their first birthday.
- More than 1,000 children have lost one or both legs
- Those having limbs amputated are having it done without anaesthetic
- There are now at least 19,000 orphans in Gaza and thousands who have lost one parent
- At least 11,500 children have been killed
- 80 per cent of the population are now without anywhere to live
- 100 per cent of the children in Gaza need mental health support
- Around 1.1 million children are unable to access humanitarian aid
- There is now one toilet for every 700 people
- Diarrhoea cases in children are above 100,000
- 135,000 children under two are now at risk of severe malnutrition
If statistics don’t move us, then what of this personal story.
A 13-year-old called Dina was injured and one leg was amputated. She lost both of her parents and two brothers. “But Dina hadn’t lost hope,” an aid worker said.
“She told us about her dreams of being a lawyer, saying, ‘I feel injustice; when I grow up, I will become a lawyer so that I can enjoy my rights and the rights of all children’.
The day after Dina made those comments she was killed by an Israeli bomb.
“The horrors of Gaza are almost unspeakable,” Lyons challenges.
“As difficult as all this is to read and to watch, it’s important the world does not look away.”
As I ponder these terrible circumstances, I am reminded of what renowned Australian author Morris West once wrote.
“I have come to the conclusion that institutional power distances men and women from their own humanity. They forget that men and women, not institutions are the subjects and objects of salvation…The tragic matter is that all these evils are abetted by and condoned by good men, for good causes: the stability of the state, doctrinal orthodoxy, traditional morality.”
Morris West
What happens to Jesus at Easter bears striking resemblance to West’s words. As we look again to the cross, all the characters involved – who are not unlike us – and in light of all that is happening locally and globally around us, especially Gaza, it might be worth pondering again what the words of the prophet Micah mean for us.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:6-8
